


When Is A Curse A Gift?

by LadyHallen



Series: This is your fault, Ms. Jellyfish! [6]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe, Curses, Cute, Don't repost, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, Wolves, do not copy to another site, fairy tale AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:08:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27447628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyHallen/pseuds/LadyHallen
Summary: When it makes me meet you - SansaOr Cor comes across a Fairy Tale story and is not aware of it until it's over.
Relationships: Cor Leonis/Sansa Stark
Series: This is your fault, Ms. Jellyfish! [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1982642
Comments: 3
Kudos: 38





	When Is A Curse A Gift?

**Author's Note:**

> Enjoy!

Cor slumped against a tree and gasped when it pulled at the sloppy bandages on his leg.

He had no idea where he was, the fever was getting high and he was tired.

The cut was probably infected. Hopefully not.

“Fuck,” he hissed.

Something made him turn around and despite how tired he was, he trusted his instincts. They were the reason he survived when Regis had him discharged from the army outside of the wall with no supplies.

“Shit!” he cursed, standing up and scrabbling for his sword. Gleaming eyes inside the darkness of the forest.

He was wobbling on his feet, but his hands were steady. Fever made his vision hazy but he was sure there was only one set of eyes. He braced himself for a lunge, a bite. Anything.

Whoever owned the set of eyes let out a whine.

Cor had handled a lot of stray animals. He knew what that sounded like.

“A dog,” he sighed.

The sudden influx of relief made him stagger, the absence of the adrenaline making him weak. It took all he had to go back to the tree and not collapse on the grass.

He rested against the tree at a slump, head bowed.

Cor knew the beginnings of infection when he felt it. He was going to die if he didn’t get help soon.

Another whine, this time closer.

He managed to turn his head and the dog was there, just a foot away and looking _concerned_.

She was bigger than he thought a dog could get. She was a dirty thing, with matted fur and a lot of mud on her tail. But she was healthy. She was well fed. Either the dog was a hunter, or there was someone near feeding her.

No collar. A stray?

“Hey buddy,” he said, voice soft and coaxing. It made the dog come closer, sniffing him cautiously. “Hey.”

He chanced a look and smiled. “A lady.”

The dog perked up like anything.

Cor wasn’t stupid. “Lady,” he repeated. “Is that your name?”

The dogs tail was wagging. Her whole body was practically moving with the tail wags. It was adorable.

A cough jolted his entire body and made him curl around his torso. Sleep pulled at him and he swayed with the effort of sitting up. Gravity won and he listed sideways.

The grass was wonderfully cool against his skin, which was alarming because it was midday and the ground was supposed to be hot.

“Shit,” he sighed again, feeling the edges of his vision beginning to blur. With a resigned hiss, Cor breathed out and let sleep claim him.

The last thing he heard was the dog whining before he fully blacked out.

.

* * *

.

When he next woke, he was in a cabin and there were professionally tied bandages around his leg and most of his other injuries. His arm was actually sewed together.

The dog, Lady, was resting on his legs, a heavy and reassuring weight that grounded him.

“What,” he rasped, throat dry and parched.

A clatter and an old woman bundled forward. Her eyes were filmed over and distant. Her hair was fully white kept in a long tail that she wound together in a bun. Her back was straight and poised.

“I’m Marge, this is my cabin. There’s a cup next to you, dear,” she said.

Cor took the cup, a rough hewn thing, filled with water. The taste of water was the best thing he’d ever had in years.

“This your dog?” he asked, voice clearer.

Marge shook her head. “No. The sweet thing just showed up one day. I think her owner is long dead.”

Cor looked at Lady, and the dog lazily waved her tail at him, eyes clear and intelligent.

“My head was hazy at the end there but I think this dog just saved my life,” he said out loud.

Marge laughed, a quiet sound. “That she did. She dragged one of my grandsons over with your sword in her mouth. That sure made all the men scramble around.”

A glance and there was Kotetsu beside him. True enough, there were teeth marks on the handle. Surprisingly, that was the only damage. A good enough exchange for saving his life.

He petted Lady. “Good dog.”

Her tail went _crazy_. “Whuff,” she rumbled, very clearly pleased.

Cor smiled for the first time in months.

.

* * *

.

Cor was feeling better, and that’s what he would tell Marge as an excuse. Currently, since he was feeling better, he was going stir crazy.

Lady had more freedom than he did. Lady had more fucking mobility than he did. Lady was also stronger than him at the moment, since his everything felt so fucking weak.

But his hands were strong and could hold his sword. His steps were sure and he didn’t fall over after five steps. Progress.

So he followed the dog out of the house, at midnight, when she always left.

Cor was careful to keep quiet and keep to the shadows. Lady kept glancing back, and her ears were pricked attentively. It was enough to ring alarm bells in his head.

He had never seen a dog do _that_ before.

He crouched under the bushes and held his breath when the dog jumped into the lake. Her head went under and Cor scrambled up, removing his shoes and just about to jump in after her when the most beautiful woman he had ever seen emerged from where Lady submerged.

Her hair was the same deep red as Lady’s fur, and her eyes the same blue. She was also stark naked.

With a muffled gasp, he scrambled behind a tree as the lady started to wash herself.

Not as quietly as he’d hoped, fuck. She turned around, hands around her breasts and immediately submerging herself under the water.

“Who’s there?” she demanded, voice lower than he expected. And uncertain.

“It’s just me,” he called out. “Cor.”

She stopped moving, the water stopped making splashing sounds. Cor kept his eyes forward and away from her.

“You followed me?” she sounded…not angry? “Why?”

Cor shrugged even if she couldn’t see it. “I was bored.”

She…Lady _laughed_. “I should have known, you were getting restless.” Which just answered the question. She _was_ Lady.

“Right,” he said. “You were…a dog?”

“Yes,” she said, voice sad. “And only a woman for two hours.”

She sounded so _resigned_. It just made him see red.

“Why are you like this?” he asked. “And why?”

She sighed. “A long time ago. A man didn’t take well to being rejected. The Adagium with his strange powers cursed me to be this way.”

“Lady – “

“My name is Sansa,” she interrupted. “Sansa Stark.” She announced her name proudly. It must have been ages since she did so and Cor promised himself that he’d remember her name.

“Right. Sansa. Do you know how to undo your curse?” he asked. By Shiva, he hoped she did. He didn’t like the idea of her suffering under it.

“No,” she whispered. “I’ve been this way for a while.”

How long was a while? He wondered. But he couldn’t ask her that. Cor may have the social graces of rampaging behemoth, but even he could knew not to ask that question.

“Do you change back every night?” he asked, changing the topic.

“Yes,” she said, puzzled. “Every night when the clock strikes midnight. Two hours after that, I am a dog again.”

“Okay,” he said with determination. “Do you like cookies?”

He may have not been looking at her, but he could _feel_ Sansa’s stare.

.

* * *

.

Cor asked Marge for spare blankets, cookies and a flask of milk.

The old woman may have been blind, but she gave him such a knowing look that Cor had a feeling that she knew what he was doing.

Which.

Hmm.

Reassuring.

Actually, since the dog just appeared...

“Marge, do you know anything about the Starks?” he asked her. He made sure to ask her when Lady wasn’t in the room.

The old lady dropped her wooden cup, the tea spilling everywhere on the rug.

“Where did you hear that name?” she asked, voice hoarse and unseeing eyes wide.

Cor scrambled up to help her sit down. She trembled in his hold.

“I heard it from the dog herself,” he whispered to her. “And she needs our help.”

Marge gave a weak laugh, a disbelieving one. “She’s not a dog, Cor. She’s a wolf small enough to pass as a dog,” she whispered back just as secretly. “And of course she’s a wolf. The Starks sacred animals were the wolves.”

“Can you tell me more?” he asked voice gentle. “I need to help her.”

Marge nodded, taking a gulp of the tea he handed over to her gratefully. “The Starks were the old ruling family, the descended from Solheim, the family surviving the ravaging. Their magic survived too. The magic to heal. The princess, the most powerful of them all, was approached by the Adagium. He wanted her help. But the Adagium was a repulsive creature that _leaked_ daemons wherever he went. The princess refused. And the Adagium cursed her.”

Here, Marge wept. “Oh, poor princess. No one ever said what her curse was. Only that it was powerful and no one could break it.”

“How long ago was this story?” Cor asked, mind whirring.

“A century ago,” she whispered. “A century. The poor dear has suffered so long.”

Cor wanted to shout. Or to punch something, he wasn’t picky.

“She was young when this happened?” he prodded.

“She was twelve when it happened. The records are adamant about it,” Marge swore.

Marge was so sure of her information that Cor was getting suspicious about that too. “Marge, who _are_ you?”

Marge smiled a watery smile. “I am Marge Poole, the sworn retainers of the Stark Kings. We have remembered when everyone else forgot.”

What the actual _fuck_.

.

* * *

.

The woman he talked to last night wasn’t twelve, Cor was sure. She was a woman grown.

However, if she had grown while under the curse, it must have been slowly. Enough to prolong her agony.

The sadistic fucker.

Cor breathed in and out to control his temper.

“Did they say anything on how to break her curse?” he asked.

“No,” old Marge breathed out in deep sadness.

Cor stormed out, needing to hit something. His hand found Kotetsu and he started to chop wood aggressively. It would dull the metal if he swung wrong and that was enough to make him pay attention to every swing.

“Fuck,” he muttered. “Shit. Sadistic fuckers.”

He was so angry that he was seeing red. A man who was so sick that he asked for help, except that he asked for help from a _child_. He must have been desperate, and in that desperation, frightened her.

She was a princess, sheltered from any and all things that would make her scared. And the Adagium…!

Cor breathed in again and let it out with one precise swing, chopping the wood cleanly in two.

He would break it, her curse. He promised himself he would. Because she had lived with it for a century. She needed it. She saved his life. He would save hers.

“That’s a promise,” he whispered, and moved his body into a vertical slash, cutting all the wood in a second.

.

* * *

.

He spent all his nights with her, now that he knew.

She must have been so alone, and unable to tell anyone. But he was there and he knew. So he spent it with her. Two hours without sleep was an acceptable sacrifice.

The first time she tasted cookies, she started crying.

Cor hugged her, his chest hurting and his eyes prickling with unshed tears.

“I don’t think I can stay here,” he told her when they’d spent every night together. “I have to do something since the King won’t.”

“May I come with you?” she pleaded, those big eyes looking into his.

Cor couldn’t refuse and he would like to see anyone do the same when she was looking like that.

“Might be more dangerous,” he told her. “I sometimes don’t stop at night.”

She smiled at him, looking like a goddess under the moonlight. “As long as I am with you, then I am content, Cor.”

Fuck, Cor was a weak man and he agreed.

.

* * *

.

Marge looked upset but not surprised when he said he’d leave.

That was nothing to the upset she got when she realized that _Lady_ was going with him.

“Protect her with your life,” Marge ordered, eyes bloodshot from crying. “Don’t you dare let her get hurt.”

“I will,” he said, the words a promise and a certainty. _Nothing_ would hurt Lady as long as he was there.

They left, heading west to get his bearings. He had no earthly idea where he was and he needed some civilization before their supplies ran out.

Lady helped, hunting down rabbits and alerting him on anything on the road. Her senses were sharper than his and it showed.

At night, he found havens and prepared blankets and food. And Sansa, in the proper light of the havens, seemed more beautiful than ever.

It was a test of his control, but he wasn’t an animal. He never allowed his eyes to stray and his hands to wander. He also paid attention to what she ate and what she avoided.

She picked at bitter food, perked up at sweet food and absolutely gobbled tart dishes.

When she wrinkled her nose at the vegetables, Cor huffed out a laugh. Fuck, he was so in love with her.

And then Sansa started shining.

She cried out in alarm, and Cor immediately ran to her, hand on his sword and eyes scanning the area.

“Sansa, does it hurt?” he asked.

“No?” she said, sounding incredibly confused. “I…Cor, it doesn’t hurt. Cor…I think my curse just broke.”

She sounded so relieved that Cor prayed to Shiva, Ifrit and to fucking Bahamut that it was true.

“You look fine,” he sighed. “Sansa, you…”

Her eyes, which glowed at night like her wolf self, was no longer glowing.

“Sansa, you’re cured,” he said softly.

She jumped into his arms and started crying.

.

.

It took Cor a while to understand _what_ broke her curse.

“I fell in love with you,” he sighed.

She giggled, the most precious sound in the world.

“I fell in love with you the moment you held me,” she said. “You smelled like safety.”

His life was a fucking cliché, but when Sansa smiled at him, Cor didn’t have any regrets.

**Author's Note:**

> Sort of Beauty and the beast AU, but cuter
> 
> Y'all remember that tumblr post where Beast was just doing nothing out of the ordinary and Belle just realized that she was in love with him and Beast trips and almost brains himself when he starts shining?
> 
> Yeah, like that.


End file.
